Monday, June 21, 2004
St. Paul II
I had some nice conversations yesterday afternooon, one with one of the LDS Church members who lives in St. Paul, a friend of the pastor of the Happy Church; and was able to leave a Father's Day message for my Dad. Later, as I was at the park, a couple of older children came by and we had a chat, and then a teenage girl who is also LDS came by. As I was trying to get to sleep, after dark, there was a bunch of thunder and lightning, and two St. Paul police officers and a Howard County Sheriff's deputy stopped. I identified myself and explained my intentions. They knew about the stop a couple of days ago next to Cotesfield, so that seemed to satisfy them about who I was. One of the St. Paul officers was appropriately incredulous that I'm intending to walk the distance, but his partner said that in Australia, it's not uncommon for people to go on "walkabout", going from place to place, finding odd jobs from time to time.
At any rate, in spite of my opinion that I had sufficient shelter and preferfed to rely on my own resources as much as possible, they were concerned about the severe thunderstorm warning in effect until 3AM with possible tornado activity in, and would much prefer I had more protection. So they took me to a motel courtesy of the Salvation Army.
All of them were friendly and polite, and since I was raised to respect the law and those who enforce it, we had no problems. The Howard County deputy who actually drove me there and talked a little about his work with the schools and the Law-enforcement oriented Explorer post. He mentioned that a lot of young people these days seem to be growing up without respect for the law or those who enforce it, possibly because of what they get from home. He sees his job as to try to teach about the law and create a more positive attitude toward the police.
After I get some laungry done here, I will be heading for Central City, Nebraska. This looks like another two day hike.
At any rate, in spite of my opinion that I had sufficient shelter and preferfed to rely on my own resources as much as possible, they were concerned about the severe thunderstorm warning in effect until 3AM with possible tornado activity in, and would much prefer I had more protection. So they took me to a motel courtesy of the Salvation Army.
All of them were friendly and polite, and since I was raised to respect the law and those who enforce it, we had no problems. The Howard County deputy who actually drove me there and talked a little about his work with the schools and the Law-enforcement oriented Explorer post. He mentioned that a lot of young people these days seem to be growing up without respect for the law or those who enforce it, possibly because of what they get from home. He sees his job as to try to teach about the law and create a more positive attitude toward the police.
After I get some laungry done here, I will be heading for Central City, Nebraska. This looks like another two day hike.
